


Run Faster, Think Faster

by Jay_Wells



Category: Thrilling Intent (Web Series)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Flashbacks, Friendship, Gregor panics a little
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 11:44:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9656090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jay_Wells/pseuds/Jay_Wells
Summary: What can't catch you can't kill you, but you can't let it catch you.Gregor finds himself remembering all the times he wasn't fast enough.





	

Gregor’s bare feet caused ripples in the water of the reflection pools behind the bar. The new moon left the sky looking vast and lonely, and the clusters of stars seemed millions of Kyr-lengths from one another. He hated to admit it, but sometimes he felt like one of those stars, too far from his friends to reach them. 

They thought he was the lovable, dumb muscle, that he was childlike, and he did his best to fit their expectations most of the time. But he hadn’t been allowed to be a child for a very long time.

_ “Well, son,” Papa Hartway said, ruffling the brown mop on Gregor’s head. “You’re a man today. Tomorrow’s your first day out in the fields.” _

_ “Really, Papa? I get to go out with you and Grandpappy?” He bounced on his toes, small fists clenched in excitement. He’d watched his father and grandfather at their work every day for years, proud that their family owned land and prouder that their rocks were well-recommended in their tiny village. There was hardly a building not built with Hartway rocks. _

_ Mama Hartway carried a small loaf of sweet bread from the kitchen and set it on the rough wooden table. Fluidly, she picked up a bread knife and began slicing it. “But that’s tomorrow. Happy birthday, dear.” She handed a bigger piece than he normally got in the morning and kissed his forehead. “Eight years old, I can hardly believe. Don’t grow up so quickly.” _

_ “I can’t stop, Mama,” he said seriously. “I don’t know how.” _

_ Mama laughed. _

_ Grandpappy called from his chair in the corner, “Don’t spoil the boy. He’s got hard work to do tomorrow. Ye’ll make him soft.” _

_ “Oh, Dad, leave the boy alone. I’m sure he’ll do just fine in the morning.” Papa defended Gregor in between bites of his bread. _

_ Grandpappy got up and stalked over to accept his own breakfast. He winked at Gregor, and then gruffly advised, “You’ve got to massage the rocks into the soil, boy.” _

_ “I will, Grandpappy.” _

There was a lot of blood in the fields the next day. Papa didn’t make the run back from town. The monsters were faster. Grandpappy shoved Gregor toward the house, trying to say some last words, but he didn’t get them all out. The monsters were faster. He ran toward home to Mama. She held the door open, but when he had run all the way across the fields, she was dead. The monsters were faster. They were faster than him, and he couldn’t have saved any of the people in the village because the monsters were faster. If he was faster, they couldn’t catch him, and what can’t catch you can’t kill you. It’s the basic principle of evasion, be faster than the monsters. Be faster. Faster. His heart beat faster.

_ “None of you are prepared to face anything on your own just yet.” Ventis walked down the line of new recruits. All of them were young boys, not more than twelve or thirteen, with one exception. Aryn, the only girl to join the Outriders.  _

_ She raised her hand. “What if something happens to you?” _

_ “Run,” Ventis snapped. “And you’ll wait to be called on in the future.” He addressed the group. “Anything you think you know about monsters -- forget it. It’s probably superstition. I will train you to the best of my ability to fight monsters, but until you have learned what a ‘monster’ truly is, you will kill nothing without orders. Until you learn to kill monsters, you will run and hide unless otherwise ordered. I will find you when the danger passes. If I am killed, then you will have no hope against it. Run, and pray that you’re faster.” _

They died in a hail of fire. They tried to escape the onslaught from the king’s army, but the fire spread faster than the Outriders moved, and the battle became a siege. When Ventis was captured, his words rang in Gregor’s ears, and he ran. He wasn’t fast enough and was grabbed by the guards.

_ Gregor woke up in a dark room, aching all over his body. There was a stinging pain on his chest. A soldier sneered down at him. _

_ “Damned cultists.” The soldier left, grabbing a branding iron on his way out. Through his pained fog, Gregor couldn’t make out the shape on the end, but it was still red hot. “You can’t escape what you are now, boy.” _

“It’s going to catch me,” he whispered.

 

His hands wandered shakily up to his bare chest, right over the branding and began scratching at it. He felt a gentle poke on his cheek and a hand on his shoulder.

A voice that sounded far away called out to him, “Gregor? Gregor, come back to us. Come on, it’s freezing out here, you’re going to catch hypothermia and die.”

His nails broke through the skin and he hissed in pain; the mark felt like it was burning again.

“Gregor, stop. You-you’re hurting yourself.” The hand left his shoulder and pulled his own hand away. He felt a surge run through his skin as it knit itself. “You’ll be okay. You’re … safe. Nothing is going to get you.”

“Ashe?” His mouth was dry.

“Yeah,” she said. “Do you need anything? I could get you a glass of water -- ”

“Please don’t go.”

“I won’t.” Ashe was quiet for some time. “Do you … do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t want to lose my family again.” 

Ashe wrapped an arm cautiously around Gregor’s shoulders. “You won’t. I don’t want to lose you guys either.”

Something that wasn’t Ashe crawled into his lap and cooed sympathetically.

_ The thing stalked them through the Prison, always just behind them. They had to move faster, but Markus was hurt. Why didn’t Ashe just heal him? Didn’t she know what can’t catch you can’t kill you, but you can’t let it catch you? Markus wasn’t fast enough with his ankle all jacked up. _

_ And the puzzles. He hated puzzles. Monsters were straightforward -- they tried to kill you, you killed them back. But puzzles went around and around, and you couldn’t move faster, you had to think faster. Ashe liked puzzles, though. She helped Markus with the puzzle when they were with Orien.  _

_ Ashe thought faster, but she thought too much. She second guessed herself. _

_ She made him faster with magic. That helped. _

 

Gregor peeked one eye open and closed it again quickly against the bright morning sun. He felt something warm and soft under his cheek. He tried to open his eyes again, blinking rapidly. “Ashe?”

“Yeah?” she yawned, shivering a little.

“Thanks for staying with me.” He grimaced a little when he noticed Charoth curled up in his lap. “I’m usually over it.”

“I know, Gregor. It’s okay.” She touched the bindings on her arms. “I’m usually over it, too.”

He nodded. 

Charoth touched his tiny claw-like hand to the top of Gregor’s head and patted it before crawling onto Ashe’s back. 

They went inside.

 


End file.
